We all have an embarrassing tale that lingers in our minds, just haunting us. We often prefer to keep the secret under wraps to avoid making the situation any messier. Usually, the best thing to do is laugh it off or use it as a lesson learned going forward.
You may have heard the typical tale of kids walking in on their parents while they were in "the act," but there are plenty of other similar moments that are just as tragic. Such tales can teach people that impromptu moments of discomfort will always eventually pass, and that time only makes the situation better. If you have ever felt ashamed over certain events, the following stories will make you realize that you aren't alone.
Don't forget to check the comment section below the article for more interesting stories!
#1 Man In The Storm Drain
My friend and I thought it would be fun to explore the storm drains in our neighborhood. We weren't near the city center; it was just a quiet residential area. It was about thirty minutes when someone shouted for us to get out.
We ran away so fast. We found a manhole and shot straight up out of it. We didn’t do that again.
#2 Idle Hands When Alone
I could only see my father's feet from the entrance of the doorway... and there was some minor twitching. I assumed he was having a heart attack and had collapsed. Nope, he was just laying on the floor naked while my mom was at the supermarket. I came back for the weekend from college; I think he forgot I was there.
#3 Life On The Line
I was a flight paramedic at the time. The helicopter was down for maintenance, so I jumped on a unit at 3 a.m. to respond to an "abdominal pain emergency."
I arrived to find a man in his late 50s sitting on the bathroom floor in his tighty-whities, except they were no longer white. There was both fresh and dried blood all over him, the floor, and the side of the bathtub. His skin was pale but he was totally awake and alert, no longer complaining of pain. He stated his abdominal pain had been severe, but intermittent since midnight and he began throwing up blood shortly thereafter.
As he was talking to us he suddenly stops, gets a blank stare in his eyes, opens his mouth and starts coughing out blood clots. There was no wretching or heaving whatsoever. It was the freakiest thing I've ever seen. About 20 seconds later, he zones back in and begins talking like nothing ever happened.
We did what we needed to do and got him to the ER quickly. I had described what happened at the scene to the ER MD. The doctor and I went into the patient's room. As the doctor is doing his assessment, the patient gets that blank stare again and goes through another round of nasty, blood clot emesis just like before. The doctor turns to me and says, "Well, I've never seen anything like that before and I've seen a lot."
#4 Impromptu Dessert
I was babysitting two boys aged eight and ten. I heard them both giggling in the bathroom and so I opened the door. The eight-year-old was on the toilet doing a #2 while the ten-year-old was holding a paper plate behind him. I yelled, "What the heck are you doing?!?!"
The ten-year-old stepped away with a deer-in-headlights look, staring at me while holding the defiled paper plate. The eight-year-old nervously piped up and attempted to throw his older brother under the bus. He started to panic and he stammered while saying, "It was an accident! I didn't know what he was doing! He just told me to bend over..."
#5 Deadly Accident
This happened late at night. I was coming from a party riding a train, and a tipsy dude fell under the train and got his legs chopped. I watched from the dock and saw him screaming. I'm not sure if he survived.
#6 Condemned To A Dirty Recliner
I worked as a medic. There was this lady who couldn't walk and literally lived in her recliner. She even has a colostomy bag. The floor is soaked, discolored and slippery. We got called because her colostomy bag was failing to vent properly and actually exploded. I cannot explain the smell.
#7 An Unexpected Sight
I worked at a catering company that often did funerals during the week. At this particular place, the dining hall was in the basement. I was instructed to use the coffin elevator to haul my gear downstairs. After using it, the door opened up. I walked into the basement embalming room and they had an old guy hooked up for blood draining. I don't know why I didn't expect that, but it took me by surprise. I freaked out and ran into a wall.
#8 A Near Miss
This happened overseas. I walked up to an IED (improvised explosive device). It looked like a large bullet with wires going to a cell phone. It didn’t go off, thankfully.
#9 Heck Of A Party
I was at a New Year's party, and Mr. Lightweight proceeded to get tipsy in the first hour. There was only a single bathroom and it was being occupied for too long, so eventually, the door was forced open. Mr. Lightweight was found draped upside down over and around the toilet, feet over the tank with his head and arms wrapped around the bottom of the toilet. He was absolutely covered in vomit. The toilet seat had been completely ripped off.
#10 Lasting Sickness
I was 13 and came home from school. My mother was walking around the house naked and delirious. She was randomly picking objects up and dropping them. She was also calling me by a name that wasn’t mine. I called 9-1-1 and my neighbor. She had a fever of 104. It was bacterial meningitis. She was in a medically-induced coma after that and required brain surgery and then months of antibiotics. She had amnesia after that and was never really the same.
#11 What's In The Fridge?
This happened at a place involving a father-son hoarding combo. The father died, and the son freaked and stuffed him into an old refrigerator. The son later drank himself into a coma. When authorities got into the house, they searched for the father, saw the fridge behind some wood and opened it. They said he "oozed" out.
The ASPCA was going to take me, a local photojournalist, into the house because they hoarded cats. The family showed up and did not want me into the house, but they allowed me into the garage. It was filled with empty animal crates and the refrigerator. I saw what was left of the father—the body was removed but there was still some “ooze” in the fridge and on the floor. That smell haunts me to this day.
#12 Tragic Discovery
I found my mom lifeless on the floor. She passed away from pulmonary fibrosis. She was very ill and could barely make it through the day. She couldn’t even breathe without machine assistance.
One night, I get back home with my buddy. I say hello to my dad and then make my way to my mom's room to say hello. And there she was, on the floor from a heart attack. I did CPR and all that I could. She was suffering so much. I wish I could have done more for her.
#13 Broken Safety Rules
I was 15 and working at a place that sold drywall, metal studs, etc. I heard a scream and turned around to witness the forklift driver freaking out and holding up his left arm. The hand cut off at the wrist, hanging backward. It was attached by a thin flap of... something.
He had been helping the other guy load a big bundle of studs onto the forks and he wasn't wearing a pair of the giant work gloves we had that came almost up to our elbows. The edges of the studs could be very sharp.
The bundle had water in it, and he grabbed it and yanked. it slipped out of his grip and the 200+ pound bundle of sharp metal edges took 90% his hand off at the wrist. I screamed for help.
I did wind up going back out and helping before the ambulance got there, though. Amazingly, the cut was very precise and surgeons re-attached it. He got about 90% of full strength back. I saw him several years later and he was a fireman responding to a brush fire near our house.
#14 Stepping Out
When I was about 10 years old, I walked in on my mom kissing a "guy friend" (she was married at the time) as I was about to take the garbage out. I had almost gotten outside, but I forgot the garbage bag. I turned back to grab it, looked in the family room and saw my mom having a "friendly" kiss with Tim.
#15 Awkward Encounter
I used to work at a grocery store when I was 16 and was a bagger for the majority of that time. This one guy I worked with liked to get himself into trouble. We can call him Adam. Adam had become very good at going to the bathroom during his shifts. There were times when he took two hours in one session in the restroom. I was once asked to retrieve him and when I walked in, what I saw as nothing short of astonishing. Not only had he been hanging out in the bathroom for hours on end, but he had also found something else to do to pass the time in there. He was fully naked, laying on the ground, clothing folded perfectly next to him.
#16 Unknown Visit
I was visiting with my 70-year-old grandmother. Grandpa was in the shower and unaware I was there. He walked into the living room buck naked looking for some frisky time with grandma. He saw me and excused himself from the room quickly.
#17 Ceiling Of Crawlies
My wife and I went exploring through some old caves. I read of one that had a small entrance but opened up as soon as you got inside. I was pretty sure I went into the wrong cave. We started crawling in, and it was very dark. I turned on my flashlight and looked up. There were thousands of spiders all moving and pulsing on the ceiling of the small cave. I screamed like a child for my wife to pull me out. She grabbed my feet and dragged me out real quick. It was like the ceiling was pulsing. It was so thick covered in spiders.
#18 Dangerous Imitation Game
I saw a child choking himself. The kid was about six years old and I guess it was a game that gave some kind of pleasure to him. It was in school during playtime and there were a bunch of other kids around, but the teacher had her back to the kids for a moment so she didn't notice. His mom was well freaked out when we spoke to her. It later turned out that the kid's older sister had seen something like that online with her friends somehow and god knows why taught it to her little brother. As far as I know, the child is fine now.
#19 Scary Fall
This happened to a guy I used to work with. He was coming back from his lunch break and saw a girl fall off our building. He wasn't fully aware of the exact nature of the situation. She landed in a tree and was okay, aside from bruises and cuts.
#20 A Precarious Situation
I was in active duty, and young airmen usually do not show up for work on time. Normally we allow a few minutes but that day we were all expected to be on time because of some inspections we were getting. Chief is freaking out and sends me and another dude to go look for him. I'm calling this kid, but he never answered. I finally get to his hotel and convince the front desk to let us in the room.
He was tied to the bed. I called the chief, and my buddy called 9-1-1. Apparently, he got robbed and was left tied by the robber.
#21 Scary Memory
My ex had a seizure with blood pouring out her nose. She also had a history of them. Whilst having one in the bathroom, she broke her nose on the floor. I was so scared, and I'll remember it for the rest of my life.
#22 An Uncle And His Pig
I walked into a good friend's barn just in time to see his father holding a pig by its hind legs, with the rest of its body in a blue barrel. That's not the messed up part. His uncle was using his hands to steady the barrel and in that second, he took a razor he'd been holding in his teeth and used it to castrate the pig. It also might have been the loudest messed-up thing I've ever walked in on.
#23 Mob Justice
My friends and I were co-hosting a party in college. We heard that one of our female friends couldn’t be found so we went looking for her. We checked the basement, the bathroom, and the bushes outside. Finally, we walked into one of our rooms and saw a guy who had never been to our house before trying to assault her. We didn’t catch on at first. Our parties tended to get kind of wild so we thought they were just messing around. Then we saw his hand over her mouth. He took it off and she started screaming. I’ll never forget that sound. That was the first time I’d ever really heard someone yelling in genuine distress before.
The guy ran away before the cops got there, but not after taking a pretty decent beating. My friends and I were taking care of the girl, but everyone else at the party was just pummeling the guy as he tried to run out of there.
#24 Taking Advantage
It was college graduation night. I walked in on one of the guys taking pictures of the girl that was with us. She was passed out naked in a hotel bed. We made him delete the pictures.
I found out later from her that he said he didn't remember doing it.
#25 Marriage Material
My ex was high on an air duster, mumbling to herself while she was semi-conscious on the carpet. Her arm was bent backward while her hand was in the back of her pants. I confronted her, and she mumbled a bit. I then realized she had gone #2 on herself. She wanted to marry me.
#26 The Angry Kid
I walked into an unlocked bathroom stall only to find a naked fat kid, around 10 to 12 years old, standing on the rim of the toilet while squatting to take a #2. He immediately began screaming profanities at me as if I was the one who was butt naked in a public toilet and forgot to lock the door. I’ve tried, but it couldn’t be unseen.
#27 Unexpected Find
I went into the bathroom at a restaurant, and the stall was locked. I kept knocking, but no one answered. An employee was nearby so I asked him if he could get it open, and he said, “Yeah, some kid probably locked it and crawled under. I’ll get it open for you.” Then he looked under and yelled. Someone was on the floor bleeding and unresponsive. I don't know if he survived.
#28 See Something, Say Nothing
There was this bungalow that we had rented in a country club. I saw a guy being dragged out of his truck and beaten. I was about eight years old. I started crying as they screamed things while pointing at me. This blonde little girl picked me up and took me to the room next to mine and we hid under the bed for a couple of hours.
#29 A Night To Remember
I went bar hopping with some friends a while ago and one of the girls in the group had a habit of running off when she got tipsy. As soon as we realized she was gone, everyone split up to look for her. I went to check the restrooms. The bar that we were in had one restroom for both guys and girls, but there were multiple stalls. I found a stall with the door slightly open and heard weird noises from inside. I figured she must be puking in there so I barged in. It wasn’t her, it was actually three random people getting intimate with each other. I backed out slowly and called it a night.
#30 Sudden Seizure
My pregnant wife had a diabetic seizure in our bed after I got home from work. It was a typical day; I went to work early in the morning. At the time, I was working for a call center and my wife was about seven months pregnant with our daughter. She had many a dips and highs with her blood sugar because of the pregnancy, so I always made sure she had her medical supplies and snacks just in case. After work, I went to our apartment and heard my wife screaming incoherently in pain.
I, for a brief moment, froze up, thinking she may have gone into labor. I immediately unlocked the door and ran in. To my absolute terror, my wife was laying in our bed flinging her arms and legs about violently while foaming from the mouth. She had taken a nap and during that time her blood sugar had dropped into the low 20s.
This was the first time I experienced one of her violent episodes. I was scared for her and my child. I quickly calmed myself and immediately ran for a glucagon shot. After a brief moment, I stabbed her in the thigh and immediately fought to massage the area so it would spread quickly. After another two or so minutes of her uncontrollably shaking, she finally came back out of it. She and the baby were fine and now our little girl is four and healthy as an ox. Needless to say, that moment was the scariest moment of my life.
#31 Life-Long Regret
I found my wife dead. She and I had an argument the night before. I worked the night shift that same night and when I got home, I slept on the couch. After I got up and took the dog outside I went into our room to use the restroom and saw her between the wall and the bed. That will haunt me until the end of my days.
#32 Taking Swift Action
A guy suffered a neck injury at work and an artery popped. My workers and I kept him alive until the ambulance showed up. At the same time, I had to close down the restaurant and get people out. The other co-workers who were not managers were escorted away from the scene and up to the dressing rooms. I was also cussing at people outside of the restaurant who were flipping their phones up and filming. I was 19 at the time, and it was a pretty horrible experience.
#33 Unshakable Memory
I was going to wake up my mom to take us to school one morning and found her dead, complete with purplish-blue skin and foam around her mouth. My younger brother and I called our grandma (she lived down the street) to come over, telling her that mom wouldn't wake up. I was in total denial as a 10-year-old. My grandma's scream when she walked in was crushing.
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#34 Unjust Conditions
When I was nine, I walked in on my naked grandma in a nursing home. Her nurse had exited the room in the middle of giving her a sponge bath and left the door wide open without covering her up. She was practically left on display for everyone in the hallway.
Every time we visited, there would be a few patients screaming and crying in their rooms and the nurses ignored them. While we were getting my grandma out of there, they stole some of her belongings, stating that they "got lost in the laundry." Some of the stolen items included clothes, jewelry, and a heating pad.
#35 Ode To Burritos
I was in the military, living in the dorms, and my buddy and I were planning to play some video games after work. He was going to be late, so I drove to a fast food joint to get dinner for us both since I knew what he wanted: two grilled stuffed burritos and an orange soda. I got home, dropped his food off, and ate by myself in my room. I called him to see if I could swing by because I left my wallet on his desk, and he said: "Yeah, just give me a sec and come on in, I'm changing." I waited five minutes, went over, let myself in. My buddy dipped his privates in the burrito.
I quietly backed out of the room before he could notice me and quietly shut the door. We never spoke of it. I got my wallet later, and we played games online. We never brought it up, but it was it was the strangest thing I had ever seen.
#36 Tragedy On Church Grounds
I was playing in the front yard with friends when I was in third grade. There were several emergency vehicles speeding past my side street on the main drag, and the first-responders killed their sirens just as they passed. We figured we’d go see what was up. It turned out an older brother of a classmate (he was 15) was taking his girlfriend for a ride on his new dirt bike. He sped across the main drag and was going to cut through a church parking lot that backed up to the local trails. The preacher was tired of kids cutting through his lot with their dirt bikes so he put up a cable across the entrance with no markers on it.
When we got there, his body was headless. His girlfriend was screaming and tearing her shirt off, putting the pieces of fabric on his headless neck as if she could save him. The cops pulled her away, and the fire department washed the blood with a hose into the grass. The EMTs loaded the body on a gurney and a cop found a cardboard box to put the helmet (complete with head) in. That was over 45 years ago.
#37 Left In The Cold
I was working for a meal transportation service in a very rural area. It was a really snowy day, and I was running an hour behind schedule. I finished the meals and was starting on medical appointment pickups. I pulled up to my first client, an elderly male. The snow was really bad and coming down fast. I got out and noticed a snowy pile beside my vehicle that didn't seem right, so I cleared some of it and saw a foot.
I frantically cleared the snow off thinking the guy had fallen and was unable to get up, as I cleared more snow, lots of blood started to show up. I cleared his head, or what was left of it. I also cleared his arm to check for a pulse and found a gun. He suffered some kind of accident. He didn't stand a chance. I don't really remember much of that day other than these moments. I do remember that I had to be driven home.
#38 Horrifying Coincidence
When I was 19, I drove by an ambulance leaving a car crash, and the siren wasn't on. I knew it was something bad. I lived in a small town, so I pulled over because it was a small one-way road. I got out of my car and realized it was my father's car in the wash. I tried walking further but the police held me back. I had walked up on the crash scene of my father's death—it was surreal and horrifying. I then had to drive 15 minutes home to break the news to my family.
#39 Burst Of Sadness
My parents went through a pretty nasty divorce back when I was a freshman in high school. I got home from school one day and went into the computer room to play some video games. I noticed the door was closed and I heard someone was inside. I figured it was my brother so I walked in. To my surprise, I found my dad sitting at the computer looking at old family pictures of us all together. He was crying uncontrollably and I was shocked. I had never seen my dad cry before this and I didn't know what to do. I ended up hugging him and telling him everything was going to be okay. I sat there, looked at pictures and cried with him. It messed me up mentally and emotionally at the time, but now I can look back at it and see it was a positive experience. It's okay for dudes to cry.
#40 Venomous Sting
I heard a little girl crying in a stairwell. When I investigated, I found a man unconscious, frothing at the mouth with his five-year-old daughter crying hysterically. He was researching snakes in the biology department and got bit by a rattlesnake.
#41 A Friend Lost
I saw my friend's dead body. I heard his dog barking, went into the house, and called out a few times. I realized something was wrong. I found him barricaded in a room. It took a bunch of therapy to work that one out.
#42 Jesus Wept
This happened at school late in the afternoon. I was going downstairs from the library and I surprised two classmates in the middle of a steamy tryst. This happened at a Catholic school.
#43 A Cry For Help
I walked up on a 19-year-old kid arguing with his girlfriend and screaming: “I don’t want to be alone.” The kid suffered some kind of accident and was dying. It was the most messed up thing for me because of the woman's screams. Her scream is scarred into my mind.
#44 Chocolate Spread
My friend threw a party when his parents went out of town. We were 16. At about 2 a.m., we realized he’d gone missing. I searched the house and found him in the downstairs toilet with his trousers around his ankles and passed out. He also left his boxer shorts on.
He got far too tipsy that night. Like any responsible kid would do, we left him there and carried on the party for a little while, then went to bed. I decided to crash in his bed and was awoken at about 5 a.m. by him. He was trying to crawl into the bed with me. It smelled awful.
#45 A Sight To Remember
My grandparents lived next door when I was a kid. I showed up just as my Paw Paw got out of the shower and was walking down the hall. He was walking away from me but his privates were hanging low and clearly visible.
#46 Sneaky Employees
I managed a pizza place in Alabama in the '90s. I went back to the office and the door was locked, which was weird because we never locked that door. I found one of my cooks drinking adult beverages with a counter girl.
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#47 Handle Machines With Care
#48 Lucky Timing
I walked into my ex at the moment she was just about to have a seizure. As I opened the door, I saw her eyes roll back in her head and she let out this weird strained sigh. I ran to her and was able to catch her before she hit her head on the sink, but it was incredibly scary. She seized for about a minute and then was totally okay; except for being exhausted.
#49 Nine-Year-Old Trauma
When I was a kid, we lived on a farm with my grandparents. We had two main houses. I got back from school one day and had to get something from my grandma. I walked over to their house, opened the front door and saw both of my grandparents in the nude.
Nine-year-olds were not supposed to see that kind of stuff.
#50 Scarred For Life
When I was 14, I had a sleepover at my neighbor's house. I woke up early and was not feeling well, so I went home. I walked in on my parents going at it on the staircase. I turned around and went back to my neighbor's house without saying a word.
My parents never noticed. Now that I am older, I find it great that they keep their love life spicy. However, there are some things you cannot un-see!
#51 Trainwreck
I once saw the aftermath of a man who got hit by a train along the tracks that run next to the building where I used to work. It was not a pretty sight, but I think he survived.
#52 Flying Woman
I saw a woman plummet past my 27th-floor office window. Initially, my brain kind of just rejected it, in a people-do-not-fly-through-the-air sort of logic. Surprisingly, I think she ended up being okay — rescuers came in just in time with a landing pad.
#53 Passed Out
I was driving around a storage building for my work. I saw a car parked tight to the building and a foot up on the driver seat headrest. I chuckled thinking someone was having a great nap. As the back seat came into view, I realized that the woman was not sleeping but instead passed out, unresponsive. I called the cops immediately.
I still have flashbacks of the woman's contorted facial expression.
#54 Tiny Person Surprise
I walked into my room and saw a heavily tattooed tiny person in my bathroom, vomiting. I poked him with a coat hanger to see if he was real. He growled at me to go away, so I went back to bed. I was not prepared to handle this.
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#55 Batman And Robin Getting Frisky
I saw a guy in a Batman costume getting it on with another guy in a Robin costume. They were in the unfinished section of a basement in my college student house that was only illuminated by a single dangling light bulb. It truly felt like a scene from a really shady adult movie.
I haven't been able to look at Batman the same way ever since.
